ACCIDENTS 109 



could render assistance, coacli and horses dis- 

 api^earcd over the quay-wall. Some of the 

 outsides saved their lives by throwing themselves 

 on the pier, but tlic four insides were less fortunate. 

 Ta\o of them thrust their heads through the 

 windows, and so kept above the sea-water; the 

 other two— a Miss Luff and her servant— were 

 drowned. One cutside, who had been flung far 

 out into the sea, could fortunately swim, and so 

 came ashore safe, but exhausted. Nine years 

 later, Eebruary 16th, 18i7, a similar accident 

 happened to the Torrington and Bideford omnibus, 

 when the horses took fright and plunged with 

 the vehicle into the river from Bideford Quay. 

 Of the twelve passengers, ten were drowned. 



October.— "^XQ " Light Salisbury," having met 

 the train at Winchfield Station, proceeded to Hurst- 

 bourne Hill, between Basingstoke and Andover, 

 where the bit of one of the horses caught in the 

 pole and the coach was immediately overturned. 

 One passenger died the same afternoon, and 

 another was taken to his house at Andover without 

 the slightest hope of recovery. A young woman's 

 leg was broken, and two other passengers' limbs 

 were smashed. 



The railway journals, which had even thus 

 early sprung into flourishing existence, did not 

 fail to notice the increasing number of coaching 

 accidents, the Bailioaij Times with great gusto 

 reporting twenty in a few weeks. The prevalence 

 of these disasters was a cynical commentary upon 

 the " Patent Safety " coaches running on every 



